Book Review: Digging Up Love (Taste of Love #1) by Chandra Blumberg

Rating: ★★☆ (2.5)
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 345 pages
Author: Chandra Blumberg
Publisher: Montlake
Release Date: January 1st, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From debut author Chandra Blumberg comes a playful, heartfelt romance about chasing your dreams and finding love in the process.

Alisha Blake works her magic in the kitchen, creating delectable desserts for her grandfather’s restaurant in rural Illinois. Though Alisha relishes the close relationship she has with her family, she can’t help but dream about opening a cookie shop in Chicago. She may be a small-town baker, but Alisha has big ambitions.

Then a dinosaur bone turns up in her grandparents’ backyard. When paleontologist Quentin Harris arrives to see the discovery for himself, he’s hoping that the fossil will distract him from a recent painful breakup. Instead, he finds Alisha—and sparks fly. The big-city academic and the hometown baker seem destined for a happily ever after.

But Alisha is scared to fall in love. And Quentin’s trying to make a name for himself in a competitive field, which gets even more complicated when the press shows up at the dig site. For love to prevail, the two may have to put old bones aside—and focus on the future.

WENT DOWNHILL.

This started off so well, and left me entirely at odds by the end. UGH.

I immediately knew I had to read this from the premise. A baker and a paleontologist? SIGN ME UP. I loved the worlds colliding aspects and how everything mixed together between the couple. Alisha and Quentin had a lot of positives and I did feel that immediate connection type of romance. It kind of comes off as insta-love, but I honestly thought it was written really well.

What I struggled with was the lack of angst. There was wayyyy too much drama at the end, but all leading up to that was a very straight forward relationship. An exact breakdown of the dates they went on, texting convos, etc. that was all nice in theory, yet didn’t give the fireworks between them time to spark. Pretty swoony kissing scenes mixed in there were a pleasant touch.

the pacing dropped so low I had to skim to feel like it wasn’t going to take me days to finish. All in all, plenty of sweet things and some good moments. Just left wanting towards everything else.

Overall audience notes: